


Red Shell and Grubpaste

by SnowMercury



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, mentions of an oppressive caste system, mentions of slavery on alternia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-04 07:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4129953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowMercury/pseuds/SnowMercury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The reason the Dolorosa abandoned her station for a grub she hardly even knew, betrayed the government, and defied the Condesce's orders.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Shell and Grubpaste

**Author's Note:**

  * For [momijizukamori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/momijizukamori/gifts).



> Hope you like! I had a lot if fun writing this. :>>>

It had been a normal day for Porrim.

Wake up when the first bell rung, clean the stadium where grubs were kept until the trials began, switch to the mealroom at the second bell, eat, and then supervise the grubs in the choosing area. Her lifestyle kept her busy, but it wasn't what she had wanted out of life. The meals were hastily made of grubpaste from the young ones that didn't survive or were 'unfavorable'- the mutants. They were tasteless or bitter at best, never properly sanitized, and she honestly didn't find anything from this life appealling. Their clothes were kept drab, loose, excellent for working in but lacking in design.

This is what she found herself thinking about after the second bell. After she had finished eating. The other jadebloods had their own duties to attend to, and she knew she had gotten off easy with her schedule. It wasn't something she could be proud of, having less strenuous activities to do. Being here at all wasn't by choice, and her workload would undoubtedly double or even triple as time went on.

Looking across the large stadium of lusii and grubs, the young jade sighed as she noticed a young rust-blooded grub distanced from the lusii, as if they had distinctly been avoiding the young child. Perhaps she was needed to step in; part of her job was ensuring each grub had a lusii and the necessary tools to live- namely, teeth, horns, and legs. If she found a crippled somehow sneaked into the group, it was mandated that she cull them.

That didn't mean she always did so. The young ones could still take care of themselves, and the wounds were usually gone by pupation from those she had heard of. It wasn't uncommon for grubs to trickle through the cracks.

Porrim walked over to the rust grub, leaning down over the child. They snarled at first, a natural reaction to an older troll so close. Reaching out her hand, the jade started to pick up the young one before noticing the odd texture of the grub's shell.

Originally, she would have placed him on the spectrum between maroon and bronze, but the mud covering his shell easily wiped away to reveal something... Different. The bright scarlet made her freeze in place, made her hands stutter in their trajectory to lift up the rust- no, the red blooded grub.

A mutant.

A mutant which had been smart enough to cover its- no, their, they were still a troll- shell. Which meant they were able to survive, even if there were no lusii around to take them, at least, no lusii with the right blood.

Picking up the grub, Porrim inspected him to reveal no further mutations. A perfectly healthy grub; only the color of his shell put him apart from the other young ones, and wasn't it her duty to make sure they were each alright? Sure, it was to weed out and kill those whom weren't, but this had been a boring job. A boring job that left her wanting each day, that would evolve to be a larger task until the combination of the stress and overworking of this routine killed her.

As she gently rocked the grub, ideas and plans began to take shape in her mind. A way to get out. It would involve some planning, but hopefully it would work. If it didn't, well... She'd rather not think about that possibility.

The business of the rest of the room left her shielded from the view of the other supervisors, of which there were two. If she could hide the grub in her clothes, perhaps tell the others she needed to use the ablution block, and calmly get back to her room- but he'd be spotted. There was no way to raise him with her room-mates, whom would certainly report her for hiding a mutant grub. 

Shocked for a moment, Porrim realized exactly what she was thinking. Raise a grub? She wasn't a lusus, a mother! She had no experience; no knowledge on how to raise a grub- yet she did. Most of it was simple, and what she hadn't known before was told to her in order to pick out the grubs that were weak. A small smile traveled across her lips; in trying to get her to do a better job, the authority had given her the information she needed to defy them.

So she really was doing this. Looking into the jet-black eyes of the grub, she felt a... Connection, with him. It wasn't pale, or red, or any of the quadrants. It was... Something else. Perhaps this was how her own mother felt.

A huff of breath directly in her right ear left her stunned as she held the grub close to her chest in a protective stance. Backing away from the noise and turning to face it, she realized a horse lusus had approached her in her reverie. He paused, pawing at the ground for a moment and glancing between her and the grub she held. Nickering softly, he looked downtrodden momentarily before noticing the shell where she had wiped some of the dirt away. Backing up, the lusus nickered once more and fell silent, considering. The horsedad dipped his head once, then trotted away, undoubtedly to look for another grub.

Porrim stilled her breathing, calming herself and looking back down to her wriggler. Yes, her wriggler- the way she had reacted had proved that to both the other lusii and herself. 

Unsure of what she'd started, the jade straightened up and cooed softly to the grub before sneaking a glance around the stadium. Hiding him in the back of her baggy shirt- which had been tied at the waist- she started for the nearest supervisor.

Once reaching the ablution block, she could keep walking to find the exit, just past the supervisor's office. First, however, she had to get through talking to a fellow jadeblood- lying, to another jade. 

Straightening her stride and focusing on the task at hand, Porrim walked towards the deciding factor on their lives. She could do this.


End file.
